One week of my simplicity experiment has passed. It’s been a new way to celebrate Lent and one I have enjoyed. I’m used to fasting being about following a rule (the most obvious being don’t eat), so this kind of unspecified self-denial is more ambiguous and requires more thought. The main areas I’m targeting to simplify and create more space in my life for God are computer use, food, and consumerism.

Yesterday Tim sold my computer, so that will certainly aid my efforts to use the computer less! It was an older used laptop that we bought off Ebay for me to use here. It’s about at its wits end. The battery, sound, and CD player no longer work. Tim was able to sell it in Pucallpa for about 50% more than it’s worth in the US, which means that I can get a very basic new netbook sometime at home (with all working parts!).

Anyway, I am computer-less for the foreseeable future and perfectly happy about it. This transition is not a time to make strict rules about how often or for what things I should use the computer, but some of my basic ideas about simplicity during this particular season are

• to avoid general internet use and specifically reading blogs, Facebook, and news
• to limit my internet use to email, writing this blog (which has become an essential point of reflection and communication for me), and looking up specific necessary things

Truth be told, it hasn’t been a dramatically different week. That’s okay. I’ll be interested to see how the next five turn out. More later on simplifying in terms of food and consumerism.

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